In 2016, Flite founder David Trewern wanted to get out on his kite foil. But there was no wind. Then, an idea came to mind: a hydrofoil surfboard run on clean and quiet electric power. But could it be done?
Working alongside Flite and their partners, we have brought this vision to life. Since 2017 we have contributed to Flite's talented Byron Bay based team, supporting them with connected firmware and PCB design, app development and manufacturing.
The Fliteboard Series 1 was regarded as the best eFoil in the world. But like all great products, there's always room for improvement. And in 2021, Flite released the next generation of their board. Their range now includes fourteen boards in different sizes, constructions and colours. Meanwhile, we've worked with them to make the board more user friendly than ever before.
Today, people from all over the world enjoy the Fliteboard—and Flite has grown from a humble idea to a multi-million dollar company, shipping to customers in over 80 countries.
What we did
- Connected firmware design
- PCB design
- App development
- Manufacturing
Outcome
First premium, mass-manufactured eFoil to market. Shipping to customers in 80+ countries.
The challenge
Get to market quickly, without compromise
Fliteboard wanted to get to market quickly. They needed an engineering partner with a track record of delivering highly integrated IoT products—in an agile way. They also needed a company that they could trust to work healthily with their chosen industrial design firm.
Why Tekt?
Engineering acumen, agile delivery
We were chosen for our high level of engineering acumen, combined with our experience in rapid prototyping and agile development. As we engineer and manufacture under the one roof, we could iterate quickly, resolve any issues and ultimately shorten their path to commercialisation.
Our experience at collaborating in the space of embedded system design and manufacture meant we could work alongside our partners quickly and easily.
The work
Developing the solution
Not all electric hydrofoils are equal. The Fliteboard has several distinct features that make it arguably the easiest and most enjoyable board to ride available. Featuring the smallest motor in the market—contained neatly inside the foil's fuselage—it has been designed to minimise drag and maximise lift while in the water. The majority of electronics are not contained in the board itself, but rather inside the 'Flitebox', which sits at the top of the mast (the e-foil). This way the mast, motor and wings can be swapped with different board types and sizes.
We were engaged to engineer and manufacture the board's electronic systems. This included electronics pertaining to the board itself, the 'Flitebox' component of the e-foil, and the handset controller. We also designed and engineered the Flite App.
The handset, board and e-foil
The rider controls the board wirelessly, using virtual gears selected via the handset controller. The handset sends this control data to the board via a low latency, low energy Bluetooth system. Bluetooth LE was chosen for its power profiles, communications structure, and flexible application as a pathway to both the board and the user's phone. As the handset is a key part of the system, it required best-in-class battery life to ensure it was always available to get the rider back to shore safely.
Bidirectional Bluetooth LE connectivity also allows the handset to receive data from the board itself—such as battery status—which it then displays on the handset's screen.
Electronics within the board include advanced GPS and motion tracking technology, recording the board's geographic location as well as its position in space—for example, its tilt. This information, along with the board's varying speed and power consumption, gets shared with the Flite App via cloud technology.
The app
We designed the Flite App so that riders can quickly and easily upgrade to the latest software for both their board and e-foil. They can also replay their rides and gain insight into power consumption, max speed, battery efficiency, distance covered and more. The detail captured by the app has set the stage for performance assessment—and one day, hydrofoil riding could be a competitive sport!
Manufacturing
Producing sophisticated, connected products like the Fliteboard involves all of our staff cooperating closely with one another and our partners. Since Fliteboard's inception, we have been manufacturing and testing their electronic systems on our premises, right here in Melbourne, Australia—possible due to the breadth and depth of skills we have located under one roof.
When it comes to making the electronics, we utilise our onsite equipment for PCB assembly, for both surface-mount and through-hole assembly. Rapid prototyping is possible because our engineers are on hand to help our production staff resolve issues quickly.
Our industrial designers play a role too: over time they've created custom jigs to help our production staff work more effectively. Such jigs ensure our production processes are repeatable, quick and accurate—used everywhere from through-hole soldering to waterproofing.
Our hardware and software engineers work alongside our production staff to test and provision the technology, including loading the appropriate software. We then test the electronics using our custom-made scripts.
The results
First to market—and named the world's best eFoil
In Fliteboard's infancy, another company was working to design and engineer a similar e-foil, but it hadn't yet hit the market. Working with Fliteboard and their partners we were able to accelerate their progress—and in 2017, Fliteboard was the first company to release a premium, mass-manufactured e-foil product to the market.
Through this project, we have honed our engineering and manufacturing capabilities for connected products that require a high level of water resistance and robustness. Thousands of boards have been shipped to customers in over 80 countries. If you're wanting a best-in-class efoil experience, check out the Series 2 Fliteboard. Evolution never stops.
We are thrilled to still be supporting Flite's talented Byron Bay team with connected firmware, PCB design, app development, and manufacturing expertise.
Recognition
- Red Dot design award
- Industrial Design Society of America award
- Good Design award
- Australian innovation of the year
- World's best e-foil — Jet Surfing Nation
About the client
Flite
It was 2016 when Fliteboard founder David Trewern wanted to get out on his kitefoil, but there was no wind. He imagined himself gliding over water on a hydrofoil run entirely on clean and quiet electric power—and that's when the idea of Fliteboard was born. The challenge gave him the opportunity to combine his passions for design, engineering and technology—as well as his love for the ocean—to create a world-class product and experience.
Initially the idea was meant for family and friends, but it wasn't long before many people were interested in the product. Now, Fliteboard has offices in Australia, Europe and the USA, and supports customers worldwide.
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